EVENT: Wikipedia Edit for Change: Workshop + group editing
Wednesday, February 16, 1:00pm-2:30pm
We look forward every year to offering the annual Library Wikipedia Editathon, but this year we’re mixing it up in some exciting new ways!
First, what is an editathon? It’s familiar to many of us to think about Wikipedia as a crowd-sourced online encyclopedia, which means that it’s only as good as its individual entries. Library communities in particular are deeply committed to the quality of information in this much-used resource. So, supporting Berkeley in learning to edit through a group editing event, with workshops for beginners, that is, an editathon, is a natural fit for us at the Library.
Second, what are we doing to mix it up? Our focus is Edit For Change—we will support you in editing Wikipedia towards any change you’d like to see! There is always room for improvement in Wikipedia’s topics and content. We’ll offer an introductory level Wikipedia workshop to support you in editing Wikipedia even if you’ve never edited before, and following the workshop, we’ll make edits together so you can pursue your editing interests more fully.
As an added bonus, we’re also excited to pair with the new initiatives of the recently-launched Library Data Services Program. This year we’re part of the University of California’s Love Data Week event calendar, which is an invigorating connection. How does Wikipedia connect to data? You may have heard of Wikidata, but there are also other connections between Wikipedia and data science: for example, Wikipedia’s content is a treasure trove for researchers who analyze textual content using data science methods. Here are some examples of the kind of research that is happening now, and here and here are some suggestions for approaching these methods if you are interested!
Intrigued? We’d love to have you come participate in the event! Registration is at ucblib.link/edit4change . Questions? Feel free to email us at editathon@lists.berkeley.edu, and we hope to “see” you on February 16!